Chapter 8

The vicious torment from Karl's malicious she-wolves continued unabated for what felt like an eternity. Despite my iron determination, each new degradation and assault on my senses felt like another tiny fracture splintering across my resolve.

I don't know how much more I could have withstood before shattering completely. In the end, it was a rare moment of returned defiance that brought the breaking storm crashing down upon me.

One evening, as I lay curled on my filthy cot trying to find solace in sleep, the harsh banging of keys announced another unwanted visit. I didn't bother looking up, expecting the usual stream of profane verbal insults to wash over me.

"Well, well, if it isn't the fallen princess come to grace us with her stench again," a nasal voice sneered.

That one I recognized as Gia, one of Karl's females who seemed to delight most in my torment. I kept my eyes closed and body unnaturally still, trying to tune out her poison.

"Nothing to say for once?" she taunted, only to be met with silence. "Good, it'll make things easier to shut your rotten mouth if you've finally learned some obedience."

There was a pause and rustle of movement. Then without warning, a hot stream of liquid splashed across my face and bare chest. My eyes flew open in shock as the putrid stench of urine assaulted my senses.

Gia stood before the bars, a ceramic chamber pot in her hand and a cruel smirk on her lips. Another of Karl's she-wolves stood beside her giggling like a deranged fool.

Something inside me snapped at that ultimate disrespect.

With a feral roar, I surged from the cot toward the bars. Both women recoiled in shock, the pot dropping from Gia's hand as my claws raked out toward her sneering face. She just barely avoided losing an eye, my nails scoring deep gouges along her cheek instead.

"You filthy bitch!" Gia shrieked, clutching the bloody furrows in rage and fear. "I'll have your hide for that!"

Spit flew from my snarling mouth as I raged at the bars keeping me trapped inside. "That's the respect you deserve, you simpering mutt! At least I stand for something more than warming my legs for an arrogant bastard of a master."

"Enough!" a commanding alpha tone cut through the ruckus like a razor.

We all froze in place as Karl himself stalked into view, his face like thunder at the disturbance. His pale eyes flickered between the trembling she-wolves and my still-shaking form pressed against the bars.

"You dare strike members of my pack on my own territory, stray bitch?" he hissed, looking utterly disgusted by my outburst. "I was willing to allow my females to facilitate some...attitude correction on you, but this insurrection cannot go unpunished."

His cold gaze fell on Gia, noting the woman trying to stanch her bleeding face. "Was she provoked somehow? Speak truthfully, and quickly."

To her credit, Gia's eyes flickered toward me for only an instant before lowering in submissive affect. "N-No, alpha. I was merely paying the prisoner a routine...disciplinary visit when she attacked me without warning. Sheer unprovoked violence."

A fresh wave of rage washed over me at those blatant lies. Had I known she would sell any shred of integrity like that, I might have aimed better and silenced her snake tongue permanently.

But before I could give voice to my fury, Karl lifted a calming hand toward me. It held no real command in it, but his supreme aura of dominance stole the angry words from my mouth all the same.

"Very well, Gia," he said, eyes never leaving my seething form. "Let this offense stand as a lesson in respecting authority within my pack, not just toward me but all those I place above you."

Wait, what lesson? I could see the gears turning behind his pale gaze as he formulated a response in his mind. Somehow, I got the sense this so-called "punishment" would extend far beyond one of his sycophantic she-wolves receiving a scratch or two.

Sure enough, Karl stepped back and gestured for some of his nearby guards. "Restrain the prisoner and bring her out here. Everyone must bear witness to what becomes of those who flagrantly disrespect the rules and hierarchy of this pack."

My fists clenched and claws extended, readying for whatever ugliness he had planned. But it wasn't bravado or false pride that kept me standing firm - I simply refused to give this merciless bastard the satisfaction of seeing me cower.

Two burly guards entered and quickly subdued me, shackling my wrists and ankles to limit my supernatural strength. Despite my fiercest struggles, I was hoisted into the air and carried bodily out into the dungeon's open area.

Already a gathering crowd had formed, drawn like flies to the scent of fresh meat. Flanking Karl on either side, Gia and her friend looked on with anticipation mixed with dread. The cowed femalesresponse told me everything I needed to fear about what was coming.

In one fluid motion, Karl tore his shirt from his torso and strode over to a wooden post rising from the filthy floor. As he wrapped a thick chain around it, the eerie clanking sound sent chills down my spine.

He turned back toward me, his movements now slow and almost ceremonial in their cold precision. I was carried, half-dragged toward the waiting post and hoisted against it roughly. The shackles on my limbs were quickly locked into metal rings, securing me spreadeagled to that grim, sweat-stained pillar.

"Let this serve as a reminder to all," Karl's unwavering baritone rolled over the gathered crowd. "That defiance of the law of this pack and the hierarchy of its alpha will be punished..."

With a sharp snap of his fingers, one of the gathered males immediately shifted into a hulking, feral-looking wolf. Another snap had him retrieving a braided, knotted whip of thick leather and dropping to his knees before the pack alpha.

I refused to let the growing dread show on my face, determined not to flinch as Karl turned toward me once more. Those frosted pale eyes bore into me with an ominous, inescapable promise:

"...swiftly and without mercy."